Darren Caplan was last night selected to stand in Hackney North and Stoke Newington at the next general election.

Darren is 36 years old and Director of Public Affairs for a London-based communications agency. He has been a public affairs practitioner since 2001, having worked at Conservative Central Office in the late 1990s. The seat has been held for Labour since 1987 by Diane Abbott, who will defend a notional majority after boundary changes (based on the Rallings and Thrasher figures) of 8,002 over the second-placed Lib Dems. The Tories start in third place with 14.6% of the vote - and would need a swing of a little over 17% from Labour to gain the seat.

This is the first of six constituencies in the party's North East London City Seats Initiative to select; the others, which will be choosing their candidates over the coming weeks, are: Hackney South and Shoreditch, Islington North, Islington South and Finsbury, Leyton and Wanstead, and Walthamstow.

Darren said on his selection:

“I’m grateful to the Hackney North and Stoke Newington association members for choosing me as their candidate. I’m really looking forward to working with the team, at the forthcoming June European elections, and the subsequent local and increasingly likely general elections in 2010, when we’ll have Diane Abbott firmly in our sights!

“In the meantime, Hackney North and Stoke Newington Conservatives will be ramping up both membership and campaigning activities in the coming months. If you live in the area and want to get involved, please email us at [email protected]."